Joshua Hammer

Joshua Hammer was named Africa Bureau Chief, Correspondent-at-Large in August 2005, after serving as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard for a year. Previously, Hammer was Jerusalem bureau chief since 2001. He was at the forefront of Newsweek's coverage of the uprising in the Middle East and the mounting violence between Israelis and Palestinians. He contributed almost weekly articles to both the domestic and international issues on the ever-changing situation. His drive to get the story resulted in his kidnapping in June of 2001. "We've Been Kidnapped," a recount of the episode appeared in the magazine and on the Web site once he was safely in Jerusalem. His reporting led to countless TV and radio appearances in the U.S. and internationally. His Middle East coverage culminated in a recent cover story on April 15, 2002, "Suicide Mission: A Human Bomb and Her Victim--How Two Teens Lived--And Died," the harrowing tale of the lives of the two teens, and how the violence directly affected them. That story, along with two others he wrote, "39 Days in Bethlehem" (May 20, 2002), and "Code Blue in Jerusalem" (July 1, 2002), earned him a prestigious reporting nomination from the National Magazine Awards. Hammer's recent reporting has also included coverage of the war on terror. He has covered terrorist networks from Afghanistan to India and Pakistan and has contributed to several cover stories since Sept.11 on the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network. Hammer was Berlin bureau chief from December 1999-2001. From there, he also covered the Balkans region and was present for the historical fall from power of Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The uprising of the people, which led to Milosevic's downfall, was captured in Hammer's in-depth cover story on October 16, 2000, "Yugoslavia: People Power -- The Last Days of a Dictator." Before Berlin, Hammer served as Los Angeles bureau chief since 1997, directing the magazine's coverage of the West coast. And prior to that, he was Buenos Aires bureau chief from Jan.-Nov. 1997, focusing on coverage of Central America and South America. He also served as Nairobi bureau chief since August 1993, and was one of Newsweek's key correspondents covering the civil war and mass exodus in Rwanda and the continuing violence in Somalia. Hammer joined Newsweek as a general editor in the Business section in August 1988. Prior to joining Newsweek, Hammer worked at several prestigious magazines. From 1985 to 1986, he was a contributing editor at Manhattan, Inc. Hammer has written articles for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, GQ and Premiere magazine. He graduated with a B.A. in English from Princeton University in 1979. He has worked as an English teacher and film critic in Japan and as a freelance writer while traveling throughout Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.